Does the race of the hero in a book matter to you?

[George]

Does the race of the hero in a book matter to you?

Recently a friend and I were talking and he wondered allowed if the fact that our books feature black protagonist might be limiting our sales. I don't believe so but I was wondering what others think.

Read more here: http://www.thedeadwarseries.com/2014/...

[LaTonya]

No the race does not matter to me. The content and how the story comes alive and grabs me is what matters most to me. I will say that I have had a hard time finding a lot of African American or other ethnic authors in the paranormal/horror, and even sci-fi genre. These are my favorites genres, so I am really open to all authors as long as the book is good!

[Harvey]

No. Maybe I would give a slight (very slight) preference to a horror novel with a non-white protagonist, just because I've seen few of them, but finally it's the quality of the story and the writing that matters to me.

[Stephen]

No.

I will say this as a writer though. I have been attacked because I try to include a mix of races and ethnicities in my writing. An individual who has never read my work went ballistic on me because how could a Caucasian portray a non Caucasian. I told him all writing was faking it and that faking it meant researching and finding parallels in your own life you could bring to the page. He still went off on me.

I also think that folk need to realise that if you want people to use a mix of ethnicities you need to set proper dictionary English as the safe fall back from political correctness. I remember a time that to call a person black was considered a grave insult. As a matter of proper manners I prefer using the proper terms for race which really only enters into physical description anyway.

Frankly, for characterisation I think level of education weather you were raised in an urban or rural environment, culture of origin and other social factors affect how you write a character far more than race.

[Katherine]

Actually I find that the race of the hero (or heroine) can effect a lot when it comes to how they view the world and react to different situations - which for me is very interesting. I just finished reading a romantic suspense novel called Gina Takes Bangkok in which the hero is a half-black, half-Japanese hit man, and he made for a really interesting read, especially as his love interest was white.

[Michelle]

It is insignificant to me. I am drawn to well plotted out and diverse characters, and a well written backdrop to ignite the potential in delivering upon a well mapped out story. The color of the characters serves no purpose for me in a book. It is the strength that lies within the writing that creates the character of a book, taking it into believability for the reader.

[Weston]

This is a question that has come to my mind recently. As a Caucasian author, of late I've taken race into consideration more too.

As an educator, I'd like to add a bit different perspective on this topic. I'd have to say that in some instances it does matter. For avid readers of any race, I think they see past the color of skin and can be intrigued by the culture, but more than that are drawn into a good story. I teach at a high school that's 95% black, and most students loved the Hunger Games, no matter what the race of the characters.

However, in my 8 years of teaching I've rarely seen great books with main characters of any race but white on school book lists... that is until recently. In my current school, I was just tasked with creating a list of recommended books (just 6) and given a couple lists of recommended books for reluctant urban readers to start my search. Now days there are a growing number of books with African American characters and situations. However what I didn't see were many books with Hispanic characters and urban situations. It surprised me. When it comes to appealing to reluctant readers or people who don't read very much, I think they're more inclined to pick up books that are aligned with the culture, setting, or race they are accustomed to dealing with. That isn't to say they wouldn't enjoy books with characters from different cultures, but getting them to read a book in the first place is the harder task. This is probably a smaller group of people than the avid reading audience, so I'm guessing publishers don't really concern themselves with it, but it might be something to consider.